Retooling: Trust or Mistrusting the Five Fold?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXIII

It has been almost ½ a century since the grass root Charismatic movement or Jesus movement was birthed, touching tens of thousands of Christian believers.  Its influence still felt today.  It has made the Church look at how it worships, influencing it music, introducing spiritual gifts back to the church, challenging many of its traditions.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow freely in the midst of tradition and order has brought tension, for any renewal movement in church history has met opposition, usually from within. 

Today, many of these influences have been “tempered”, “absorbed” through the “osmosis” of control, and presented as a belief of the church but with little evidence of its use.  It has now been several decades since I have been in a joint, nondenominational meeting where there was evidence of speaking in tongues with interpretation, prophetic utterances, the entire congregation singing in the spirit, the laying on of hands for healing and the Spirit’s empowerment, and the manifestation of deliverance from demonic influences.  Because of the church’s demand to control these types of events, it seems as if all is quiet on the Western front today. Control has “tempered” this movement that challenged the religious establishments of its time.

In the 1990’s the “prophetic” movement and later the “apostolic” movement left its impact, but the church categorized them, as they did all five fold ministries, as “offices” as Senior Pastors and self proclaimed prophets now boasted of their banner of being an apostle.  Only clergy boasted of those titles, but the church would not recognize the prophetic or apostolic as a passion, desire, motivation, point of view or gifting that was touching the grass root believer of the Church.

Because of some of the misuses and misunderstanding during these movement, the 21^st Century Church has produced a spirit of skepticism over the five fold, seeking control to insolate itself from any more damage.  Yet in the midst of any renewal or revival movement comes newness, self insightfulness, re-examination, and change.  With any movement of renewal, revival, or reformation comes the question of “trust”.  Can we “trust” what this new movement is advocating?

I believe the foundations to the five fold has been laid through the 20^th century as the Church was forced to grope with the truths presented and released in the various movements of renewal and reform throughout that century.  Unfortunately, the church, as an organization, has tried to bring the influence of these movements into the protective covering of its influence, often damping them into submission. 

I believe the church needs to take a “new” look, a “renewed” look, a “reformational” look at the five fold.  If it allows it to be a “grass root” movement among all of its believers, and embraces it as passions and point of views of its individual believers for the unity of the common good, we may see a new resurgence of the five fold in the 21^st Century. Any time the power, influence, and control of the professional religious clergy is challenged by the newness and freedom of the common believer, tensions will increase; history records that clash.

Of course, this blog advocates the freedom of individual believers to be released to flow in their evangelical, pastoral, teaching, prophetic, or apostolic passion or point of view to be used in an interdisciplinary setting, relying on each other’s gifting, passion, and point of view that are is different from their own in an effort to bring unity and resurrected power back into the Body of Christ to make the Church effective in the 21^st Century. Continue to join me in my journey as the Holy Spirit continues to reveal the truth, power, and passion of the five fold when released into his care.  Can we trust the Holy Spirit is still the bottom line question the church and every believer in Jesus Christ must ask.

Retooling: We Have To Start Listening

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXII

If the 21^st Century Church is to be retooled, one crucial change is if it is willing to “listen” to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.  There is always the temptation to have organization and control instead of fluidity of the Spirit.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow freely is always a risk because we give up control.  As I addressed in an earlier blog, the bottom line is, “Can we trust the Holy Spirit?”

Personally, as I have learned to allow myself to “listen” to the Holy Spirit, my frustration with the organized church has risen.  When in a worship setting, while the congregation, or Body of Christ, is in the midst of singing, praising, and adoration, I love to just sit quietly and listen, something that is contrary to my very nature since I am an extravert.  I have learned that listening is of not much value if you do not act on what you hear in obedience.  This is where the frustration and tension builds.

When the Body of Christ, the believers of Jesus Christ, come together to worship, God’s Presence can always be found in the midst of His congregation.  The Spirit of Jesus Christ can always be found in the midst of his people, particularly when they gather in worship.  It is in these moments that the Spirit often speaks.  The Church needs to evaluate how is to respond when the Spirit speaks and moves among his people.

I have found myself actually getting a homily, a mini-sermon, while in this listening mode, but I have become frustrated because there is no outlet in the church service to release this revelation.  I feel the restriction because of the mindset that the “sermon” has already been planned and can only be delivered by the clergy who is in charge of the service.  The sermon has become the centerpiece of most Christian church services today. I have been at awe when the pastor’s prepared sermon was the exact message that I received while in the listening mode in worship.  Isn’t it neat how the Holy Spirit works.  When I have gotten a prophetic word about an individual during corporate worship, I have been obedient and gone to them with the message, which has always been “right on”, ministering to them right where they are at that time. My obedience has always produced positive fruit.

Church bulletins, liturgy booklets, etc. give order and direction to a church service, ensuring order and tradition. There is “safety” in following a planned agenda, for we are always in control knowing where to go and what is expected.  But when we “anticipate” the Holy Spirit’s arrival and give him freedom to move, then our planned agenda is in jeopardy, for we are delegating our control over to the Holy Spirit to move as he pleases.  Again can the 21^st Century Church “trust” the Holy Spirit to arrive, to move, to speak, and to “maintain” what we believe is order?

If the 21^st Century Church is to allow the Holy Spirit to be released in its midst, then the five fold is crucial to bring that “safety” that the church is seeking while allowing the Spirit to move freely.  The evangelist will encourage the “newness” of the “birthing” process that the Holy Spirit brings. The pastor/shepherd welcomes the Spirit’s movement as it touches the spirit and soul of those he is disciplining towards their maturity in Jesus.  The teacher will be amazed at how the Holy Spirit can make the Logos, written, Word into a Rhema, living, Word. The prophet will be in his element of comfort, while the apostle will marvel while “over seeing” how the Holy Spirit brings unity among these different motivational passions and points of view.  The “free” worship service, lead by the Holy Spirit , under the umbrella of the five fold, will bring fruit, be spontaneous, an operate in unity.  There is “safety” in “trusting” the Holy Spirit. That trust is one of the biggest “retooling” issues that the 21^st Century Church has to address.

Retooling: Teaching, Theology “Divides”; Application “Unifies”

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXI

Are you “Pre-Trib”, “Mid-Trib”, or “Post-Tribulation” in your theology of the “End Times”.  Are you an Evangelical, Fundamental, Pentecostal, Main Line Denominational, or an Independent in your label of Christianity?  Do you believe in “once saved, always saved” or do you believe that salvation is a process where one “works out his salvation”?  All these are “theological” differences that divide the Body of Christ, producing heated debate and “draw the line in the sand” divisions.

On the other hand the “application” of spiritual principles through “service” (the central motivation for the five fold) always bring “unity”.  I remember worshiping beside a lady at a Jesus Rally in the ‘70’s who claimed to be a Byzantine Catholic, not having any idea what a Byzantine Catholic was or stood for, but I do remember us worshiping in “unity” together not caring about any labels that usually brought division theologically.  Service Project days where several churches get together to clean up, fix, repair, etc. local communities through “service” always erase labels and brings “unity”. Rather than most meetings of the local Council of Churches encouraging a “dialogue” over their differences to create an atmosphere of “tolerance”, it would be far more effective if they just “serve” one another, creating an atmosphere of unity of purpose.

Application of the gospel can bring resistance, though; usually from the theological communities opposing their effort.  Jesus always had the Pharisees criticizing what he was “doing”, and the Sadducees looking over his shoulder. Only time has changed, but not the forces of opposition.  The Pharisees argued that it was not proper to heal on the Sabbath theologically; Jesus just applied the principles of healing and healed no matter what day.  He fed the masses when they were hungry, healed those who were ill, delivered those who need deliverance.  He just “did it”, applied the truth, not argued over what was the truth. The Pharisees of today’s Church will still oppose the application of the gospel somehow in an attempt to bring disunity.

The five fold is to “prepare the saints for the work of the service”; it is to release the saints to apply their faith in everyday situations through “service”.  Its purpose is to bring the Body of Christ together, not divide it, to bring believers in Christ into the maturity of being “Christ-like”, to bring the fullness of the gospel to a dying world and a struggling church.

I, personally, propagate application over theology. “Doing” gets things done; “arguing” and “debating” always stalls the “doing” process.  Like Niki’s slogan that when wearing their sneakers “Just Do It”.  The 21^st Century Church should follow that when being a Christian, a follow of Jesus Christ, one should “Just Do It”!  That is called “application”, the “service” that the five fold is equipping the Church for….. for the “doing” of the gospel.

Retooling: Teaching, An Application

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XX

Teaching is not just dispensing information but more importantly the application of that information.  You can teach grammar, but if you don’t apply it to editing in the writing process, it doesn’t make sense.  Often students gripe, “Why do we have to learn this?”  Until the learner buys into the application of a principle, it is difficult to teach that principle for them to apply.  This also applies also to the Church.  Why learn all these Biblical principles if one is not willing to apply them?  If you just “study” them, it becomes “religion”; if you “apply” them, it becomes “life”.

“Book work” produces theory and theology, not necessarily application.   In science class, one can read and memorize science facts, but applying them in a laboratory situation is far more effective.  We, the Church, have fallen into this trap of “book work” in teaching the Bible as a book to research, memorize, and analyze through literary criticism, producing theology. In many churches, men’s & women’s group, small groups, share groups, etc. base their gathering on “studying” a how-to live a Christian life/principle book, often learning about a topic, but not necessarily actually applying it.  Educational degrees are based on theology.  Walking out one’s faith is based on application.

Don’t get me wrong, or misread me; the Bible is the core, the basis of everything the Christian teacher teaches. My emphasis is on “application” of those Biblical truths.  In the gospels, Jesus “applies” the Word when battling satan in the wilderness, as Jesus refutes, but “the Word says….”  Satan knows the word too, but theologically twists it, and, of course, never applies but opposes its principles. Jesus wins the battle because Jesus IS the Word made flesh, the Living Word, the Rhema Word.  When you “live it”, you “apply it”. Jesus IS the “Living Word”, the “Applied Word”.

In the Gospels, you don’t see Jesus leading weekly Bible studies, but walks with his disciples showing applications of the Kingdom of God principles as he goes.  He is not in a classroom setting, but a real world setting.  Because He had not yet “fulfilled” the Word, he often taught in parables that were only understood by his disciples after his fulfillment or after the Holy Spirit was released by Jesus to teach the understanding of his kingdom of God principles and parables.

If the 21^st Century Church is to be retooled, it has to recognize who “The Teacher” is.  Of course, Jesus is “The Teacher”, but upon his ascension to heaven, he sent His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to earth to teach the truth of the gospel so it can be an applied, living gospel. Instead of Theologians being the teacher, the 21^st Century Church has to recognize the Holy Spirit as the teacher, for the Holy Spirit lives in the heart, the life of each and every believer in Jesus Christ.  Revelation comes through the Holy Spirit to every believer making the Logos Word, the written word, the Rhema, or living word.

Retooling: Teaching – From Facts To Faith

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XIX

A major retooling has to occur in the way we “teach” our faith, the kingdom of God, and the Gospel, or Good News if we are to impact our constantly changing word in the 21^st Century.  The church still operates under the medieval mindset of head knowledge of facts being poured out by an educated clergy upon the uneducated masses, the laity, causing a class distinction, a division in a Church whose foundation, Jesus’ will, is to be unified.  What freed the medieval church from this entrenched mentality came with the technology revolution of the printing press that freed the believer from hearing the oral dogma of the Church from their pulpits to allowing the Holy Spirit to teach the Logos, or written Word, to the masses through the printed Word.  The masses, or laity, then began to allow the Holy Spirit to release the Rhema, or Living Word, back into the Church as its members, the laity, began to have the desire to “live out the Word”, and the Great Reformation was birthed.  Spiritual life began to come back into the Church.

Today the Church still feels the tension between the medieval design of only the intellectually trained teaching the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to instruct the masses, the laity, how to walk out this Living Word.  I chuckle how the male dominated leadership structure in churches allow women to raise their children in a godly manner daily through mothering at home and maybe even permit them to teach the children in a Sunday School, Children’s Church setting, but will not allow women to teach adults because it is only men’s work, as if women are intellectually inferior when it comes to instruction the ways of God. 

My dad has always proposed that the way you bring up a child in his first five years is the path the child will follow for the rest of his life.  If the child is raised Roman Catholic, he will remain in the Roman Catholic tradition; if raised Protestant, he will remain Protestant.  The Roman Catholic Church, realizing this truth, is the only major Christian organization to institute a massive successful system of parochial schools to train their children in their intellectually driven religious dogma.  They teach their members to respond to the gospel intellectually through their clergy for the rest of their lives, thus the medieval system of education is deeply entrenched.  I feel the 21^st Century Church needs to break out of that mold.  We will look at the power of teaching our children in the next blog.

The 21^st Century Church needs to learn how to release facts into faith, a written Word of Laws into a living Word of Grace and Mercy.  The five fold approach would help instruct the Church in “equipping the saints for the work of the service,” for it is a pluralistic approach with evangelists, shepherds, prophets and apostles along side teachers and walking with fellow brothers and sisters in the faith in service, then releasing them to serve. This walking out one’s faith in daily life with other brethren by your side in service, to serve, rather than the clergy/laity mentality established in the medieval Dark Ages, is a novel idea in the way we do Church, particularly in the Western World.

Jesus taught by experience, not by intellect.  He wants you to experience the Cross (Take up your Cross and follow Me), experience inner healing, physically, mentally, and spiritually, experience faith, not just talk about it, experience relationships since He is a relational God. To “know about God” is one thing, but to “experience” God is quite different.  The key to changing the 21^st Century Church’s mindset is to recognize that the Church must “experience” God more than it needs to “know about God”.  I guarantee you, we will know more about God when we experience God.

Retooling: Teaching – Field Trips?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XVII

Going on field trips is always better than in-classroom experiences.  Even studying the topic of the local sewage plant was better on the road than in class.  Experiencing the Holocaust by walking through the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. proved way more effective than just reading The Diary of Anne Frank out of one’s literature books.  Experiencing history rather than just reading about it has always been the goal of a social studies or history teacher.

The same is true with the Church if it is to be retooled for the 21^st Century.  Experiencing Jesus is more important than just reading or listening to a sermon about him.  Experiencing faith is always more powerful than reading about faith or hearing a lecture about it. 

Field trips are recorded throughout the New Testament:  The Road to Emmaus with the disciples being taught along the way, the parable of the Good Samaritan along the road, Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch trying to decipher the mysteries of the book Isaiah, the woman at the well, Zacheas sitting in a roadside tree, Saul getting knocked off his horse receiving the revelation of whom he had been persecuting, are only a few of the recorded field trips, but every situation proved to be powerful.

How would taking spiritual field trips throughout the neighborhoods surrounding our church buildings effect what goes on inside those buildings? What would the church learn if it “hung out” with its neighbors instead of investing hours in committee meetings?  What effect would the church have if the Men’s Bible Study decided to hang out at a local bar just talking to the men there and allowing the bar tender to not play “pastor” to his despairing visitors for at least one evening.

Servicing opportunities like meeting the needs of the widows, the elderly, the ill, and the poor always produces powerful fruit.  Even the serenity of a men’s fishing trip, like the disciples experienced on the Sea of Galilee, has its impact.  The church has had a mindset for centuries that the lost needs to come “in” rather than the church being sent “out”, yet the Great Commission is all about being sent out.

Even if a scholar has studied the scriptures, read all the books on theology of salvation, but never personally experienced the saving gospel, all his knowledge has been in vain.  If he has had read volumes of books on evangelism, but has never lead anyone into the saving grace of the Lord, all his reading has been in vain.  The “experience” is always better than the “head knowledge”. 

Maybe instead of “rethinking” about the 21^st Century Church, we need to be “experiencing” the 21^st Century Church.

Retooling: Teaching – Theology: “Gag A Magot”!

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XVI

The suffix “ology” means “study of”; the prefix “theo” means god.  “Theology” = “Study of God”! Really? How do we study about God?  Western thought advocates through head knowledge.  Jewish thought advocates experience through the heart.

When earning my Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies through Christian International, I had to take a theology course.  It was one of the most intellectually difficult courses that I have ever attempted.  On a given topic, theologian after theologian was quoted on what “they thought” the meaning of a passage to be usually in a dialogue only a trained graduate level intellectual could understand.  Often I would read a paragraph two or three times until its meaning became clear. Instead of an survey through the Old Testament or New Testament course, which is considered an undergraduate course, graduate level courses focus on key beliefs or motifs as theologians over the centuries debate its meaning. 

My concern was always how does these “advance” courses advance our “Christian walk” in the Lord. Do these courses cause a believer to be a better “doer of the Word”, not just a listener. Usually not, because they are all head knowledge.

Yet in Christendom today, our leaders are still “developed” and “promoted” on what they learn, not how they apply it.  Then they try to “dispense” their knowledge through sermons which we have been told is the keystone of a Sunday morning service.  In some segments of Christendom, churches envy if they can have a pastor with a Doctorate Degree.  In many churches, staff is always taking “courses” to promote their positions and careers.

If we are to retool the 21^st Century Church we must ask, “Did Jesus propagate this strategy?”  Even though Jesus was called rabbi, or teacher, he never founded a Bible School, a Theological Center, or a University; he chose 12 misfits, who the leaned of his time quickly recognized as being “untrained”.  Jesus always battled the Sadducees and Pharisees, the intellectual religious leaders of his day.  He was NOT one of them, in fact opposing them.  Would Jesus oppose the clergy/laity system today if he was physically here? Probably.

Jesus “walked the walk”, not just “talked the talk” nor “debated the debate”.  He took his disciples on constant field trips to teach lessons of “the kingdom of God is like…..”  He taught them how to “experience” the kingdom of God, not “understand” it.  Now don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit, who has been sent to be our teacher, reveals the “mysteries” of the gospel to those who seek it, but knowledge of those “mysteries” is only good if they are applied to the walk of faith a believer is taking.

Today if a person is serious about his faith, we say he is “called” into the ministry, having him leave his local congregation to be trained at a Bible college, then a Seminary, only to be sent somewhere else, usually not returning to the local congregation, which first developed him.  I believe the five fold is to “equip the saints for the work of the service”, at least that is what Ephesians 4 states.  I believe the local body has been “called” to “equip” the local body to “serve” the local body. For that to be done, the 21^st Century Church has to be retooled to have local believers impact their local community.  We will look at this challenge in following blogs.

The Cross: From Pain To Gain; Evil and Judgment to Goodness and Mercy

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XVI

From Accusation, Persecution, Judgment, and Death to Resurrection Power

In past blogs I have shown that when the natural, our everyday routine life, is intersected by the supernatural, that intervention by God, we experience the Cross.  I call those moments “God Moments” because He intervenes into one’s life.  What I have forgotten was the cross is also a place of pain.  Jesus faced extreme pain on the Cross.  At Gethsemane he saw beforehand the reality of what he was about to face and knew it would be painful, yet he proved to be obedient. 

The Cross is a place of death.  Romans used it to torture, for sheer cruelty. When we take something to the Cross, we are taking it to a place of death, but with Christianity, we take things there because we know that the lying it down at the Cross will produce only one thing, a resurrection with power.

I like the promise of the Resurrection, the power, the life, but the pain of the Cross is totally against my flesh and desires.  I wish there was a spiritual “pain killer”, but I do not know of any.  Jesus said to “take up your cross and follow me.”  The “following” I want to do, but counting the cost, facing the pain is difficult.

If we wish to retool the Church for the 21^st Century, we need to realize that everyone/anyone who has a pastoring/shepherding spirit will help people to face their painful Crosses.  Psalms 23 states, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff will comfort thee.”  The rod and the staff is that of a shepherd. The Valley of the Shadow of Death is the foot of the Cross, the place of pain, but the place one can travel with a pastor/shepherd.  The rod and staff is for protection, direction, and support.

The believer with the passion to care, nurture, and develop is not afraid to “walk through” trials, no matter how dark with another person.  It takes a special kind of believer full of faith to take this walk, this passion, this drive, this desire to reach out to the hurting, the confused, the lost.  “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”  One with the pastoring/shepherding spirit majors in “goodness and mercy”.  While rest of the world judges when facing the Cross, the pastor/shepherd extends “goodness and mercy”.  Where there is no “mercy”, there is no resurrection power.

What is the secret of the Cross is that God can take what seems to be the “ugliest”, “cruelest”, most “unjust” scene in the history of mankind, and transform it into a resurrection beauty with compassion and justice.  In spite of the pain, the Cross always leads to gain, because the mercy of God takes us through it, and I thank him for giving the church the gift of a believer who cares, nurtures, and develops His sheep.

Retooling: Caring, Nurturing, Developing Is Never Ending

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XV

Pastoring, nurturing, developing, and caring for someone is a process; something that continues in time with a relationship.  When one first becomes a parent, he/she does not realize that they are now a parent “for the rest of their lives”.  One’s roles may change during the process, but those they are parenting will always look up to them for what they have done and are doing.  It is continual, often seeming never ending!

The way parishioners have been wired to think of pastors and pastoring throughout the last couple of centuries must be revamped, retooled.  Our mindset of a “pastor” has been one of a paid professionally trained man of God who tends to his/her flock. Their assumed and unofficial job description is to care for the flock. Because of their title, we expect them to be and do all things: an evangelist, an orator, a Biblical scholar, a counselor, a person to perform life cycle services like christening, weddings, and funerals, a business man, a director, a teacher, a person always in touch with God, an overseer, etc., etc.  I have no idea how a person can be gifted and prepared for all those areas and do them effectively alone, but that is the assumed job description, plus more.

I believe we need to have a mindset change. That is why I would rather refer “pastoring” as “shepherding” so the stereotype mindset disorder will not interfere with what we all should be doing, and some with passion.  Every believer should help nurture those younger than themselves in the Lord, who are less fortunate, or in need, for there are times we fall in and out of all those categories. Printed on our Statue of Liberty is “No Man Is An Island; No Man Stands Alone.”  If the secular world knows that principle, the Christian world needs to understand and practice it as the “Body of Christ”, and pastoring/shepherding is a key component of that principle.

The Christian community, the Body of Christ, has always been a caring, nurturing, developing community when the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit is alive, recognized, supported, and active.  It is a community of “grace”, “mercy”, extending “forgiveness”, and providing “protection”.  When you remove the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit, this same community can become accusatory rather than a listening ear, vindictive rather than giving goodness, judgmental, shooting their wounded rather than providing healing.  Many Christians who church-hop have been victims of an environment that lost its “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.  Other Christians, who place their hope in the new “pastor” who is only short term, or who falls, or who does not meet their unrealistic expectations, also become hurt because of the loss of the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.

So what should our mindset be?  What retooling needs to be done?  Of course with any revival or reformation, it begins with “me”, my recognition that a pastoral/shepherding spirit resides in me because the ultimate Pastor/Shepherd, Jesus resides in me.  I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, a Christian, need to realize that I am my brother’s keeper. I am to “love my neighbor as myself.”  I, like Jesus, “cares” for you, me, my neighbor, even my enemy.

With that comes the recognition that there are those who have a passion, a desire, a drive to serve through caring, nurturing, developing one into Christ likeness through compassion and love.  These believers in Christ we need to learn to release in their passion of caring, nurturing, and developing with encouragement and support any way we can.  Shepherding can be a Body ministry of many individual believers pouring the love of Christ into a person in many ways as they develop and grow in Christ. Pastoring/Shepherding is all about relationships, so the more healthy relationships one can develop in Jesus, the healthier we will be physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

When the Church retools its craft of Pastoring/Shepherding, it will be done through relationships: caring relationships, nurturing relationships, and developmental relationships. Wow, a challenge for the Church and its mindsets as the Holy Spirit retools.

Retooling: From “Acts Of Kindness To Institutions” – How Did We Get There?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part X

Today my blogs in this series shift from the evangelist to the shepherd/pastor in the five fold ministry.  A shepherd majors in “acts of kindness”, nurturing, caring, disciplining, developing, sustaining, maintaining, actually walking the walk of faith in daily life.  The evangelist births the “new born” in Christ; the shepherd nurtures and develops that “child of God” towards the likeness and image of Jesus Christ.  He walks out the spiritual walk with this new toddler in everyday practical terms.  Bottom line: he is “there” for them.

We, who have been Christians for quite a while, can look back at those “spiritual” mothers, fathers, and mentors who have profoundly influenced our spiritual lives with great gratitude.  Their “sacrificial acts of kindness” exemplified the Christian walk in Jesus.

I truly believe that “shepherding” is a calling and gift from God. It is instilled in the believer in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the ultimate shepherd, even when suffering on the cross made sure he told John to take care of his mother.  He was putting in line the Church’s role to take care of the widows in his day. “Caring” is the heart beat of the shepherd/pastor.

I cannot stress enough how we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should be caring for one another in the Body of Christ, older men mentoring young men in the faith, older women mentoring the young ladies, reaching out to one another to meet needs, sacrificially.  That is what “body” ministry is all about, and a shepherd’s passion, desire, and point of view is to meet the needs of members of the Body, the Family of God, and nurture the young in the faith toward maturity in Christ.  Shepherding is the backbone to spiritual development in Jesus.

The “acts of kindness” by people who “care” are powerful tools of ministry whose fruits are life changing.  Physical and mental development is central to my teaching as a public school teacher at the Middle School level. The giggly, hyperactive, braces wearing 12 yr. old girl proclaiming “he’s so cute” turns into a 14 year old girls who just stares at guys in awe, speechless. It is developmental.  A Shepherd majors in “developmental” strategies to help a young believer in Christ “develop” into the likeness of Christ, such an important cog in the five fold ministry.

I wonder how Church who allows their influence of developing people for Jesus to slip through their fingers when they begin to “institutional” their efforts.  In an earlier blogs I have shown how the “C” in YMCA has been lost and has been replaced as a place where you can hang out if you’re gay as portrayed in the Village People’s song “Y.M.C.A.” which is played at sporting events all across America. Many hospitals carry the names of their “religious roots and founders” only to have lost the “religious” influenced that birthed them.  We have become accustomed in allowing institutions to take care of our widows (nursing homes), our homeless (shelters and Rescue Missions), our sick (huge health care systems), our poor (State welfare systems).  The church as an institution has reneged its influence to social and government institutions thus forfeiting the Christian influence that was the backbones of many of these institutions when first conceived.

How does a ministry become an institution?  When it looses its influence of “personal care” for “efficiency”.  As an institution gets huge, its quality of personal care diminishes.  I have seen it in institutions in and out of church across the world.   How do we keep a ministry from becoming an institution? Simple, by allowing the “shepherding” or pastoral component of the five fold ministry to come back to the Body of Christ as it was originally intended.  Just as one-one-one evangelism is the most effective form of evangelism, so one-on-one personalized ministry is still the most effective form of shepherding or pasturing.

Today’s church “pastor” (office, profession) can’t be the proper shepherd it flocks needs if he/she is to be all things to all men.  The person filling the office or profession can’t be an evangelist, shepherd (counselor), Bible teacher, spiritual prophet, and apostolic over seer all at the same time to everyone.  That produces burnout, frustration, and hurt.  We need to allow the five fold back into the make up of the body of Christ.  We need the “shepherd” to return to shepherding its flock.

Retooling: Evangelism is “Just Doing It”!

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part IX

I truly believe that the reason Jesus came to earth was to “reveal the heart of the Father”.  In a previous blog (Mon. Dec. 12, 2010) I shared how the word “agape” as in “agape love” is God’s love.   Agape love as translated in old Hebrew means “revealing the heart of the Father”.  Jesus’ mission on earth was “to reveal the heart of His Father”. He said, “If you have scene me, you have seen the Father,” and  “I and the Father am one.”

Jesus spent hours in seclusion praying, seeking the will of the Father,” and the Father was always faithful and revealed His Will to His Son.  The key to seeking the will of the Father is being obedient to that will when it is revealed to you.  Once you know His will, then “Just Do It”!  Just Act!  Those in the first century sought the Will of the Father wanting to reveal the Father to their generation, and God was faithful and revealed Himself to them.  All they had to do is “Just Do It”, “Act”, thus the book of Acts was birthed.

Evangelist also want to reveal the “heart of the Father.” To do that they will go to no length to reveal Spirit of Jesus Christ to the lost and dying world, which is the heart of the Father.  Evangelists are in the “revealing” spirit.  They “Just Do It”!  You can’t stop a believer who has a passion to reveal the heart of the Father; they can’t help themselves. They “Just Do It”!  New believers in Jesus Christ just want to tell others, the evangelistic spirit, to anyone one and everyone about their “new” experience of being “born again”. They “Just Do It”!

The five fold ministry is all about release, not holding back, “Just Doing It” out of obedience so that “the heart of the Father” is being revealed.  Does the Church want revival?  Then let the evangelism “Just Do It”.  Revival always starts with evangelism.  We need to let the evangelist “reveal his heart”, the heart of evangelism, the Father’s heart to the lost.  We need to release the shepherd to “reveal his heart”, the heart of compassion, care, and nurturing to the new babes in Christ.  We need to release the teacher to “reveal the heart of the Father” through his written word, the Logos Word, the Bible so that scriptural truths will be revealed.  We need to release the prophet to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the living word, the Rhema word, ro reveal how to live out our faith in our daily life.  And we need to release again the apostle to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the Church, through the giftings, callings, passions, and points of view that make up the body of Christ to bring unity.

You, me, and fellow believers in Jesus Christ must individually and corporately seek the will of the Father God, asking Him through His Son Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ “to reveal His heart” to us today.  God is always faithful.  He is in the reveal business, for the last book of the Bible is even called the book of Revelation, a book to reveal Jesus Christ to us.  The Father “will” reveal His heart to you, me, us as a body; now you, me, us…, we must be obedient to what “heart revelation” he exposes.

He reveals; we respond….. how? We need to “Just Do It”!

Retooling: The Missionary Mentality

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part VII

I have been on short-term missions trips.  We go into a country for a very short time, then leave it.  We might have had an immediate impact, but I question any long-term impact.  I remember the feeling I had in Jamaica seeing all the youth groups and short term mission teams at the airport who came to do mission work and vacation, yet Jamaica is still a poor country. The same with Haiti.

The way the church handles missionaries is despicable.  We send them out, patting them on their back for following The Great Commission, only to have them return in a couple of years to “beg for money”, ooops excuse me, “raise support” from the churches and people who originally sent them out. 

I went to a Mennonite Church Plant Seminar in the ‘80’s where they were preparing one or two couples to go out and “plant” new churches.  I know of a couple that followed through, only to abandon the project in five years because they became overwhelmed doing it alone.

Maybe we need to “retool” our mentality of how to prepare, support, and do missions.  The five fold model as described in my last blog may be an answer, for if it works at home, it could also work abroad.  If a diversely gifted five fold team seeks the Holy Spirit how to evangelize and develop an area for the Kingdom of God, they will probably get unique solutions due to being in a different culture with a different language and lifestyle with a different perspective than the way we see it. 

What is the most effective way “evangelize” in a Moslem nation when it is a crime to do so?  How do you show God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace to a culture that has never received it before?  How do you “serve” those in a way their culture accepts your service without them being skeptical of your motives?  The discernment in a five fold team would be perfect for this endeavor.

We have to rethink how we teach in a different culture.  We need not build “Bible Schools”, but allow a person with a teaching passion to learn their culture and produce practical applications of kingdom principles to teach them gospel truths. Jesus modeled that with his twelve disciples.  He never started a rabbinical school of theology.  He just walked with them in their Jewish culture, teaching them principles through their culture.

A prophet would set the ground work for spiritual warfare, particularly in pagan cultures. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities in high places.”  Prayer, worship, and discernment, and a need for intimacy in knowing the “heart of the Father”, the “will of the Father” is mandatory when invading a kingdom in darkness for the kingdom of Light.

How does the culture do “family”?  The shepherd would have to nurture the new converts to teach them how the “family of God” functions, body ministry.  This is a challenge if the culture permeates a dysfunctional, non-Biblical, family lifestyle.

Of course, the apostle would have to be aware of the culture where his team is present. He needs to encourage the evangelist to birth the endeavor in a sensitive, loving, with grace manor, not like a bull in a china closet approach that has often been done in evangelism that maybe won one soul, but turned of multitudes away. He would make sure the shepherding component was in place for when harvest began, that the teaching would make sense to those in the culture they are trying to reach, and join the prophet in the spiritual warfare needed to succeed.

Retooling missionary work to a five fold team work is an unique possibility that has the potential to not only evangelize an area, but build up and establish the Faith in that area.  If the team then “equips those saints in their culture for the work of the service,” they can leave to establish new church plants as Paul did in his missionary journeys, only to return to reinforce, and support those they have “equipped”. 

We need to break the old mentality that missionaries stay for life in the culture they once penetrated. The “natives” of the culture always look up to them, not as equals, but as icons on pedestals. The key to five fold ministry is “release”.  The missionary team needs to be “released” of their passions and points of views when they first come to minister, but then “equip” and  “release” their work on the believers of that culture who can effectively reach their own people for Jesus.

Retooling: Evangelism, A New Model: How It Works

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part VI

Today’s image of an evangelist is a man standing behind a pulpit formally preaching a three-point sermon or a man on the street with a bullhorn, or a lone figure handing out gospel tracts, leaving a paper trail behind him. He is the central figure of all activity.  We need to retool the evangelist’s image in the 21^st century to becoming not a lone figure doing all the evangelizing, but a team player, which is a completely different mindset to the art of evangelism.

If a believer in Jesus Christ has a passion to win the lost, but frustrated in the technique on how to reach them, the other four points of view and passions of the five fold team would help.  They need to tackle the project as a team.

The first step would be corporate prayer and worship by the group.  “Listening” would be the key, for the group would want to unanimously hear the Will of the Father for this given situation.  A Railroad Crossing Sign reads “Stop/Look/Listen”.  The group would have to do stop what they are doing, look to Jesus, and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to tell them what to do. 

The hard part is the second step, the “doing”: being “obedient” to what they have seen and heard, for there lies the solution to the problem. Jesus often modeled this approach, often going in solitude to seek His Father’s will to which he always got answers.  The obedient part came in walking on the water, feeding the 5,000, raising a widow’s son from the dead, healing the sick, and the biggest challenge, the Cross.  He did all that through obedience, and all proved to be effective evangelistic tools.

Once a strategy is agreed upon, all five points of view is heard and accepted in unity, the third step of “release” occurs.  The evangelist is “released” to “birth it”; the shepherd is “released” to set things in place to “maintain it” after the birth of the new lambs; the teacher is “released” to make sure the plan is “scripturally sound”, and the Bible will be the central rock, the foundation, for the new lambs growth; the prophet is “released” to “worship”, to do “spiritual warfare”, to help with “prophetic evangelism”, and to bring “Rhema life” into the endeavor; and finally now that the “Big Picture” or “team strategy” has been “released” by the Holy Spirit to the group, the apostle is now “released” to “see over” all that is to be done while “releasing” each of the other four in their passions and directions while maintaining unity in Spirit and in purpose. The secret to "equipping the saints" is "releasing the saints" in the passions, gifting, and point of view they already inhabit.

The fourth step, I believe, is the most difficult: each member of this group has to practice I John 3:16 beside John 3:16, that is they have to “lay down their lives for the brethren”.  This method of team evangelism and Body growth will only work if each and every participant is willing to lay down his life, his agenda, his passion, his gifting, his point of view for the other four and “serve”, “serve”, “serve”. Ephesians 4 is all about “equipping the saints for the work of the service.”

Step Five: Once the group has heard in unison and is released, a beehive of “obedient” activity begins as each of the five fold “sets in order” that which they have been “called” to do by “serving” one another in a unifying effort that will win the lost, build, develop, and maintain the Body of Christ while bringing unity, not division.

Current and old mindsets of the way Church has done “revivals”, has always brought divisions, new factions, new splint off groups, but by retooling the way the 21^st century Church does “revivals”, “renewals”, “rebirths”, “evangelistic endeavors” through this five fold group approach, unity will be its benchmark, not division, a totally new concept to the Church!

“Retooling”: The Way We Think Of An Evangelist

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part V

In the past we have thought of an evangelist as a profession, someone academically trained at a Bible College or Seminary who now does “evangelism” for a living.  This immediately puts pressure on the person and the church to “provide” financially for their needs.  That is why there is always an offering at evangelistic meetings.  A nonchristian often looks at this as a pay for performance tactic, and the media has always questioned the validity of money with ministry.

The Church needs to rethink, or retool its thinking, on what is an evangelist.  An evangelist has a spiritual calling, a spiritual gift, a passion to win the lost, a drive to help the lost find their way into the kingdom of God, a point of view skewed by this drive and passion to see the overwhelming need to save that which is lost.  The evangelist sees the fires of hell, the insane distance between fallen man and his God, the anguish of not personally knowing God, and the dread of knowing that anguish and torment is eternal unless the “good news of Jesus Christ”, the gospel, is preached to all in that state, to save them from their eternal damnation and separation from God into a personal relationship, fulfillment, and intimate union with God whom they had been separated from through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We have to “retool” our mindset that an evangelist has to be a professional. No, he is any believer in Jesus Christ who is driven by this passion to save the lost by birthing them into the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ.  That is the way an evangelist thinks. That is his point of view.  He sees only the lost and their birth. After their birth he is driven to win more to Christ, not necessarily nurture them in their new walk and life in Christ, that is why he needs the other four passions and points of view of the five fold around him.  A true evangelist is driven by this point of view no matter if he is pain or not.  Let’s take finances out of the equation right now to understand the true nature of an evangelist.  Money is not the issue, passion, drive, point of view, and calling is!

We all have an evangelistic spirit within us, and need to share the gospel with the lost.  One-on-one evangelism is still the most effective means of winning the lost.  We must also recognize that in the Body of Christ there are believers who are “driven” by a “passion” because of the way they see the world through their spiritual eyes, their point of view.  Often believers with this passion receive opposition from the very church that should be supporting them, developing them, nurturing their calling, and “equipping them for the work of the service”.  What is your local church doing to “equip” those who recognize this drive and passion within themselves?  Better yet, what are you doing as a supporting member in the Body of Christ to help “equip” those who recognize their drive and passion?  That is the retooling we need to look at and perform.

“Retooling”: A New Way To Support An Evangelist

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part IV

In the past an evangelist has usually been a parachurch ministry, not part of a local ministry.  He/she would come in, hold meetings, then leave.  The only “support” given to the evangelist was usually financial through offerings.  Often the evangelist could be someone whom no one knew personally, only as an acquaintance, since the only time they would be part of the local congregation was during their meetings.  Being on the road so much, it was hard for an evangelist to establish personal lasting relationships.  Some denominations have looked upon the evangelist as a stepping stone for young preacher to get experience and name recognition before earning their own pulpit and church.  The young evangelist may be a good preacher, but how does he learn “body ministry” if on the road so much? 

It is time to “retool” how we think about an evangelist as a person and his passion, vision, and point of view.  I never think it is God’s will that an evangelist should be a traveling loner.  Personally, he needs a close Brother/Sister in the Lord who has a shepherding heart to nurture and guide his personal daily walk, not a Board Of Directors who looks over the “business” of being an evangelist.  He, like the rest of us, needs personal care that only someone with a shepherding heart can give.  A shepherd knows his sheep, and the sheep know their shepherd, so a shepherd would known when it was appropriate for the evangelist to release his passion at home or on the road and when to be home with his family.  An evangelist can save thousands of souls, yet easily loose his own family, his own treasure, if his priorities are not in order. A Shepherd helps him prioritize his life and his calendar.

An evangelist needs a teacher.  The Word of God, the Bible, is central to the heart of the message of an evangelist.  “Redemption”, “rebirth”, “repentance”, “conversion, turning from one’s sin”, “sanctification”, etc. are all Biblical themes at the heart of an evangelist’s message.  If an evangelist isn’t grounded in the Word, his message will be watered down and ineffective.  A teacher can help supply Biblical principles to aide the evangelist.  Also every person needs a partner in Bible study, and this duo would be dynamic.

An evangelist wants to see “rebirth” and “new life”.  He not only wants to plant the Logos word into those who are listening to his message, but also wants to “birth” a Rhema word, an active word, into their lives.  Evangelists want to see changed lives, lives now living for Jesus.  Who better to help guide him in his endeavors than a prophet?  With the evangelist always being on the front lines, the front runner, a prophet needs to bring him back into the Presence of God to personally be refueled.  A spiritually arid evangelist will not produce fruit unless he too drinks the living water and feeds on the living bread found in personal and corporate worship that a prophet can supply.  Also the prophetic voice is a powerful voice when giving an evangelistic message.

Currently, evangelists have Boards to govern or oversee their work.  Often boards become “yes” men to encourage and propel the evangelist, not iron sharpening iron.  Usually Board Meetings become “business” meetings, not ministering meetings toward the evangelist own personal needs.  The evangelist needs an personal overseer to “see over” not only his ministry, but his own personal life.  Someone who sees the Big Picture, who will release him in his passion of evangelism, yet will release the other five fold ministries to minister to the evangelist.  He knows when an evangelist as a person needs pastoral care, thus preventing the disasterous fall of many previous spiritual giants; when an evangelist needs a teacher preventing inherent false teaching or doctrines; when an evangelist needs a “black and white” seeing prophet to call forth righteousness and draw the evangelist back to the source of his spiritual strength. 

We need to retool our thinking that an evangelist is not alone, but part of a team, that what he “births” can be nurtured by others, that he too needs body ministry for his own spiritual health, that he is part of a family, a group who cares about his own personal life and direction.  Drawing in an evangelist into a team, a family, a body of Christ in order to be released is a “retooling”, a new mindset, we need to consider for his health and welfare.   

Not An Evangelistic Team, But A Team Supporting An Evangelist

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church - Part III

The late 19^th century and throughout the 20^th Century “Evangelistic Teams” were formed to lead major evangelistic crusades throughout the United States and the world.  As crusades grew larger and larger, so did the supporting cast with the evangelist to the point they brought their own cooks, head of ushers, publicist, etc.  Soon there was a party of 50 or more on the team, and the cost to afford them would drain the local churches who were supporting the crusade.  Only until the Billy Graham Assoc. came along were guidelines created to bring accountability to Evangelistic Teams.

After the crusade had concluded, the evangelist and his team left town, new believers were to go to local churches, and with the lost of the hype created by the crusade, things returned to normal.  Five years later the cycle had to be repeated as another crusade might have to be planned.

In the future the 21^st century evangelist could also be part of a team, but not an evangelistic team.  He could be part of a supportive five-fold ministry team. It could be a local team, not an itinerant team that comes and leaves.  The local team would remain in the locality it is targeting.  This team will support and release the evangelist to “birth” this endeavor. If an evangelist works with a pastor/shepherd, there will be an attempt to shepherd the new lambs of faith that earlier crusades had evaded.  If a teacher was part of the team, the new lambs could grow while studying the Word of God, the Bible.  Also the validity of the Word of God would be central to this evangelistic endeavor. A prophet would aid an evangelist with discernment, seeking the will of the Father in how to reach the lost effectively, for every evangelistic endeavor is unique to its situation and culture. Prophetic evangelism worked with the woman at the well and brought revival to her town too! Finally, an apostle, whose needed “over sight”, “seeing over” what the Holy Spirit was doing while releasing the evangelist, the shepherd, the teacher, and the prophet to do what they are best gifted to do would bring the team together in unity. 

This would be a totally unique approach to evangelism.  No longer would the evangelist be one person trying to reach the masses, but a team of spiritually gifted believers, with different points of view and passions that would be accountable to one another, yet releasing one another to use their giftings for the unity of their purpose, to bring the lost to Jesus Christ, then bringing them to maturity in Christ, and bring unity to the Body of Christ.

Just think of the potential of winning the lost, birthing them into the Kingdom of God, then nursing them to maturity in Christ, teaching them the principles of the kingdom of God as Jesus did through the Logos, the written Word of God, the Bible, and prophetically speaking into their lives the Rhema Word of God, the living Word, while under the guidance and leadership of an over seer, seeing over their needs, their passions, and their visions.

This just may be one of the ways to “retool” the Church for effective evangelism, for equipping the saints for the work of the service, and for ushering the return of the Lord for his Bride without spot or wrinkle.

Calling All Evangelists – That Means Me?

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church - Part II

If evangelism means “rebirthing” and “renewing”, it means “retooling”.  How is the way we look at evangelism to be retooled?  Well, I believe evangelism will shift from one body, one person, speaking to the masses, to a mass of believers uniting as one body to speak to 1) a lost and dying world, and 2) a divided and disarrayed Church, both unprepared for Jesus’ return.  An emphasis will move from small local church bodies of believers to being part of the universal Body of Christ.  Even though we have an identity as in individual believer, and an association in the coming together as a small group body, the Church is about to be part of a major “graft into the vine” if it is to be “effective” in the 21^st Century.

Technology always has help ushered in an evangelistic era.  After a century of not embracing change, the Church found itself in the midst of what has been deemed “The Dark Ages”.  The evangelistic spirit was almost diminished, and the challenging the Church hierarchy, institutional structure, and theological dogma was labeled heresy with burning at the stake as its source of enforced terror.  Guttenberg’s printing press, a new technology, ushered in the “Age of Enlightenment” and “The Reformation” eras, allowing the Priesthood of Believers to read the Word, the Bible, while being taught by the Holy Spirit that resided within themselves, a definite “retooling” of the way the Bible was to be taught and received.  With the new technology of the World Wide Web, the Internet, why would there not be a “reemphasis”, a “retooling” of the way the Church is to think of itself, the world, and global evangelism and unity of its Body?  The Church is again faced with a “retooling” period of its history as it embraces the possibilities of this new technology and the effect it has on itself and the way it sees the world, and I am sure that the “evangelists” of this new mindset will face the “burning at the stake” of its generation by the established Church who is unwilling to retool and remain unproductive and spiritually bankrupt, another Dark Ages. 

I do not want to live in another Dark Age Period, but in an Age of Enlightenment as illuminated by the written Logos Word of God, the Bible, into a Rhema Living Word of God in each and every believer in Jesus Christ who is willing to be “equipped for the work of the service”.

So we need new mindsets, a “retooling” of the way we think of Church and do Church in the 21^st Century if we are to impact this World Wide mindset before us.  Instead of denominations, we will be forced to go back to the Church by locality.   In Paul’s day, when the world wide view was limited, he looked at the Church of Philippi, the Church of Corinth, the Church of Thessalonica, etc. as his sphere of Church influence.  The 21^st Century World Wide Web Church may have to be looked upon as “continent” localities: not just The Church of North America, but also The Church of Asia, the Church of Australia, the Church of South America, the Church of Africa, the Church of the Orient,  The European Church, etc.  Denominational lines will have to fall as they have in today’s Church of China, as the Priesthood of Believers have been forced to unite in order to survive. 

How is the 21^st Church going to invade spiritually the global challenges of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism, of the various forms of the 21^st century paganism, etc.?  History has taught us not through military means like the Crusades, but through “evangelistic crusades”, as Billy Graham and other evangelists have called them in the past century, only “retooled”.  The only way the Spirit of Jesus Christ can penetrate these areas is through a “retooling” of the way the Church perceives an evangelist and evangelism in the 21^st Century.

The “retooling” will require a new “point of view” of how the Church sees itself and the world.  The Great Commission is still in effect, even in a greater measure, as a “retooled” World Wide view is envisioned.  “Without vision, the people perish.”  With this “retooled” vision will come a “retooled” passion that can only be “birthed” out of an evangelistic Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit.

A “Rebirth”, not a “Recovery” – Calling All Evangelists

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church - Part I

In previous blogs I asked “Who will be the next Billy Graham?  What will be the next evangelistic movement in history? “  To those questions I reply, “You are the next Billy Graham! The next evangelistic movement may be the retooling of the 21^st Century Church”.

In the make up of the five fold ministry model of accountability, responsibility, and service, who better to ignite a renewal, a revival, than the one who majors in birthing and rebirthing, the evangelist.  Evangelism demands change, for “the old has gone; the new has come!” (2Cor. 5:17) Conversion to Jesus Christ takes the total “turning away from the old” and “embracing the newness in Jesus Christ”, yet the Church, as an institutional structure, is known for “holding on to tradition, the old ways, that old-time religion,” not wanting to release the old rather than embrace the “newness in Jesus Christ” that has brought rebirth, renewal, and reformation in its history. 

Martin Luther, John & Charles Wesley, Alexander Mack, Johann Guttenberg, William Tyndale, and many others challenged the ingrained institution of the Catholic Church in their day, some paying with their lives, others with their reputations, but ushering the Great Reformation, changing Church history.  We have seen Whitefield’s influence on Wesley, taking the Church out of the building and into the forest and fields in England and log cabin itinerant preachers taking the gospel to the American frontier where there weren’t any church buildings.  We studied great mass Evangelistic endeavors in huge tents, arenas, and stadiums, again outside built Church structures.  I witnessed the Jesus Movement of the ‘70’s meeting in farmer’s fields for the weekend that ushered in the Charismatic Movement, again outside organized Church structures.  Then why will the Church not recognize that to experience “rebirth”, “renewal”, or “revival” it must think outside its existing Church structures physically, theologically, and practically?

But every believer in Jesus has experienced a personal “rebirth” and “renewal” reviving their lives.  If you are a Christian, and the evangelistic “experience” is so central and vital to your spiritual life, you qualify as a believer in Jesus Christ, to “release” that “evangelistic experience” within you to help “retool” the 21^st Century Church (See my blogs on the Priesthood of Melchizedek).  We are the ones who are called to be “equipped for the work of the service” (Eph. 4).  We will not be individual Billy Grahams, but part of a priesthood of believers, a body, who will “evangelize” the world for Jesus in the 21^st Century.  We are part of a priesthood of believers, a body, who the Lord Jesus is preparing for His return.  His return depends on our preparation as a Body, thus a retooling is needed as part of that preparation if we as a Church are to be “without spot or wrinkle”.

You and I are the “evangelists” of the 21^st Century.  Let’s examine what that means in the next blog.

Will Our Economy Dictate Retooling the Church?

A Challenge To Go From Staff To Saints

A close friend of mine, when visiting our local church, noticed that our church bulletin listed budgetary needs for the year.  Our local church looked as if it was going to fall short of their projected yearly goal.  My friend related how his previous church in totally different section of the country also was experiencing a windfall of budgetary projections.

Budgets project future spending.  During prosperous times the process is easier and more fulfilling than in lean times, but it is funny how money effects our lives, or lack of it, even the church.  He then said the budgetary windfall at his previous church caused leadership to make painful decisions of staff layoff, but soon discovered that the local saints, members of the congregation, were now volunteering to do what the hired staff use to do.  More people now being involved at no monetary cost.

When staff is present, it is so easy to “dump” what we, Joe Average Christian, should be doing ourselves on them because “that is what we pay them to do”!  We idly sit back, apathetically, watching them do the work of the kingdom, oooops church system, while all we do is criticize them for not doing it the way we think it should be done.  No staff: we are now forced to put our money where our mouth is, in our own actions.  We are to be “doers” of the Word, not just hearers, not transplant everything upon a hired staff.

World wide economics might force necessary changes in the way Western civilization does Church.  The Church of China has had to go underground, and is spiritual healthy even though persecuted.  The “Fat Cat” American edifices of large buildings and staff during times of prosperity may have to rethink their structure, system, and go back to their roots of strength: the laity, the common believer, the pew congregant to solve its challenges.

So the questions remains:  How is the Church to “retool” itself through economic tough times?  I propose by “equipping the saints for the work of the service” is the process of “retooling the Church of the 21^st Century”! This will have to take another “Age of Enlightenment”, spiritually, rather than intellectually in order to perform correctly.

America listens to its industry and economics.  In York, Harley Davidson Motorcycle Co. has drastically released half of its work force who made “nice salaries”, retooled its assembly line, is selling less product than previously, but is now making a substantial profit.  A dying, almost bankrupt, Detroit automobile industry has been forced to do the same.  Americans call it ingenious, companies saved!  The Church too is experiencing layoffs of staff, needs to retool itself by “equipping those believers under their banner”, and will also reap spiritual rewards.  Unlike American economics which strives for “recovery”, the Church strives for “rebirth”, a topic called evangelism which we will dissect when studying the new mindset of the five fold ministry.  Who best to “rebirth” a church that needs “retooled” than an evangelist?

Every time the Church has gotten financial rich, affluent, it has lost its “influence” as “salt and light” to the world. The 21^st Century Church is about to go through a change of “affluence” to “influence”! Bring it on!

Power Shortage or Outage?

Where Has The Power Gone?

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, on PBS they aired a program on Buddhism where they explained miracles in the context of that faith as just being “the unexpected” in a mundane rational world.  Having a cup of coffee instead of tea could be classified as a miracle.  There is no supernatural in Buddhism when everything derives from within oneself and the mind. There is no life after death when all emphasis is on the present, this minute moment of self awareness and fulfillment, the avoidance of suffering.

I have just finished teaching a series on “the Cross” where I defined it as the supernatural (vertical relationship with the divine) dissecting or intersecting the natural (horizontal relationship of our own life). I have personally chosen to call those times “God Moments”.

The program made me stop to think that most Christians, like their Buddhist counterparts, have chosen to live in the present moment, not expecting the divine to “actually interfere” with their lives, looking for an unexpected event to be their miracle rather than experiencing the divine nature of God in them to rise and manifest itself, producing the unexpected.

I missed the influential days of the 1970’s and Charismatic movement when I witnessed actual miracles.  I miss actually seeing physical healings, demonic deliverances, manifestation of spiritual gifts, tongues, interpretations, prophetic utterances, singing in the spirit, out door Jesus rallies, nondenominational gathering of actual Body ministry with unique corporate worship, fellowship among the saints without any religious label or denomination placed on a person, a hunger for Jesus, a hunger for worship, a hunger to get into the Word of God, a hunger to fellowship with other believers, a time when one “expected” the “unexpected”, one “expected” the Holy Spirit to move producing the “unexpected”, alias a miracle.

Jesus warned those in his day about seeking only miracles while missing the Miracle Maker, the supernatural, in their midst.  I am not talking about focusing on “miracles”, but focusing on Jesus.  Jesus’ whole life was the “unexpected” visit of the Godhead, in the form of man, to earth through a virgin birth! Everything he did was “unexpected” for his time, thus miraculous. Even the “expected” cruel death on a cross was usurped by the “unexpected” resurrection, leaving all the officials of his time without a rational explanation.

I propose, that as Christians we need to “expect” the “unexpected”!  We need to “anticipate” the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives as “supernaturally natural”.  That is why Christianity in its purest form has so much more to offer than Buddhism.